We blogged a couple of years ago about how we should all be doing more to lessen the amount of single use plastic and waste that ends up in our landfills and inevitably blowing and floating about our beautiful environment.
We at The Survey Initiative have always been environmentally conscious, recycling and minimising our carbon footprint where possible.
Now we have discovered a fantastic local scheme, initially set up by some volunteers at a primary school near to our office, but which covers the large rural district that we’re situated in, Tendring.
The Tendring Primary Recycling scheme have and still are working hard to make as many aware and involved in recycling. They have investigated all kinds of avenues to recycle things that perhaps we didn’t think we could for a start, and it’s incredible that the school can in fact exchange collected items for funds and equipment.
The school benefits, would you believe, from collecting and sending off items like crisp packets, confectionary wrappers, cake and biscuit packaging, most things to do with oral care (toothpaste tubes, old toothbrushes including electric toothbrush heads and associated packaging), plastic waste from personal skin and hair care products, clean pet food pouches, and stretchy plastic like bread bags.
And then, apart from that, they will also collect items that other organisations, schemes and individuals can make use of.
They will take in any clean material, such as duvet covers, pillowcases, any decent sized scraps for ‘Josie Bags’ which make bags for cancer patients to keep their equipment in whilst undergoing treatment, rather than a plastic bag which can be rather undignified.
Old towels are collected to be passed on to local animal rescue centres and vets, whom are always in need.
They collect reading glasses, and pass them on to organisations that can get them to developing countries.
Plastic milk bottle tops go to a local church raising funds for the Air Ambulance charity.
Bras and clean underwear are sent to ‘Smalls for All’ to help teenage girls and ladies in Africa.
Old inflatables are sent to a scheme where they are made into fabulous bags to raise funds for the RNLI.
Toiletries, make-up, and other hygiene products are sent to a scheme called ‘The Tendring Hygiene Project’ for people and families who simply cannot afford such items.
They will also take in anything that could be used for craft activities for local clubs and schools and as further support from The Survey Initiative, one of our members of the team help out at 2 local schools with their craft activities.
There’s even a scheme for upcycling broken brollies!
Their Facebook page also allows members to offer items for free to anyone who may want to upcycle in some way – recently someone was offering loads of old craft magazines and someone was offering to collect bric-a-brac for a charity! Inspiring!
It’s not possible at the moment to recycle all plastics and other waste, but there is so much more The Tendring Primary Recycling Scheme will collect, making sure our rubbish is used in a more productive way – recycled, getting a second lease of life and benefitting many local people in our area.
We’ve embraced the scheme here at The Survey Initiative, having our own internal ‘drop off’ point for our staff, where we sort and hand over to one of the many ‘drop off’ points, run by volunteers, around the district.
It’s a scheme we believe that many areas around the country could instigate, making a difference to our environment, making people more aware of what they could do with their waste and also, in some way, help the issue our planet is having with single use plastic.
You can find more about them here.
The Survey Initiative is an experienced employee research company who are passionate about our planet. If you would like to know more about how we can help your organisation with any employee research matter or would be interested in a FREE Employee Engagement Consultation, then give us a call on +44 (0)1255 870735 or contact us via our website.
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